Technical Abstract:
Carrot (Daucus carota) is an important source of pro-vitamin A in the human diet, as well as other important antioxidant compounds. While essential to human health, very little is currently understood about the accumulation of carotenoids, the vitamin A precursors within the storage root that give carrot its orange, red and yellow pigmentation. In understanding the molecular mechanism for carotenoid accumulation in carrot, it may be possible to enhance the biosynthesis and therefore increase the amount of total carotenoids within the carrot storage root. As an initial approach to this work, expression of genes within the carotenoid biosynthesis were analyzed, using real time quantitative PCR. No significant difference in gene expression was found in most of the nine genes evaluated within the pathway, but two fold higher expression was observed in dark orange pigmented carrot in comparison to white, in some cases. This study has identified a region of interest in the biosynthetic pathway for further investigation of carotenoid accumulation in carrot.